Black Clover: Nah I'd Lose (UPDATED)

A few days passed until the first time our protagonist gained consciousness and came to the realization that he had transmigrated.

How does he track how many days have passed since that day?

Simple, by counting the number of times he gets food.

He had gotten comfortable with sensing the mana inside his body and could mould the mana into basic geometrical shapes quite quickly.

He had also started moving the mana inside his body and gained decent competency in that.

Due to the mana not leaving his body and technically not being used, he could do this exercise most of the time. One thing he had noticed was that when he moved mana, some of it got converted into a lower form of energy, which he simply called "waste energy" as it was a chaotic form of mana.

Its analogy could be similar to how "heat" was perceived in his previous world: a lower form of energy converted from a higher form. The lower form of energy has no way to get converted back into a higher form; thus, total usable energy is always decreasing, despite the total amount of energy being the same.

However, he didn't know whether "waste energy" could be converted back into "mana."

What he knew was that it left his body and dispersed into the environment.

He was worried that the guy could notice his actions through this, but after sensing a bit in the environment, he realized that there was mana everywhere, and so was "waste energy," though sensing the latter was harder.

He looked at the new plate of food he had gotten and quickly consumed it fully.

He looked around at the other slaves who were eating their food.

He decided to delay what he was going to do for later and focused on refining his internal control by working on compressing an amount of mana.

Time passed, and luckily for him, his cage was at the corner, and the guy was in the cage on the exact other side most of the time. So, he lay down on his back such that it was diagonally facing away from the others so that nobody could see his front side.

He first concentrated on the mana in his solar plexus, then moved it to his palm and released it.

He could see blue mana dispersing in the air.

"Okay, let's see whether that guy comes here or not," he decided to test the waters by checking the amount of mana that was going to be output and dispersed into the air.

It was risky, but he felt that it would not be easy for the guy to always monitor the inside. Plus, even if he had a way, it would be very hard to determine the source unless the guy had an exact pinpointer device or magic.

So, he was gambling on the latter's non-existence.

To gain something, you need to risk something too.

After going back and forth between internally focusing on compressing the mana and externally releasing it, he realized that the guy either couldn't notice him releasing mana or was pretending not to notice.

Either way, the next day, he didn't use mana in the range of one hour before and after the guy came to give them food, and gauged his reaction, which didn't really give him any useful info as the guy was the same as ever.

With that, days passed, and he practiced compressing mana inside his body in various shapes, even experimenting with mana output—being very careful with the latter, as he didn't want to risk much.

One day, during the night when everyone was sleeping, he placed his finger near the lock and released mana from his finger, which took the shape of a key.

After one minute, he was able to form the right key.

Just in case, he tried that again the next minute and instantly opened the lock.

However, he was unsure whether to escape now or later, as in the last few days he had seen that when the slaver opened the door, it was raining heavily. He didn't want to escape in such conditions without a grasp of the exact location.

Also, he didn't have enough combat power to kill the slaver in a sneak attack, so those two factors made him close the lock and return to his training despite knowing that there was a possibility the carriage could reach its destination the next day.

With that, some more days passed, and he noticed that it wasn't raining heavily anymore outside.

"So, it's finally time to escape... I can't wait to meet all the characters from the canon," a weird expression appeared on his face, which disappeared after a few seconds like it had never existed.

"Calm down, those characters are real, so they would have more depth to themselves. They could even be different from the original. Plus, what's the guarantee that I am close to the canon timeline? Maybe I am in a time hundreds of years after the canon events, or perhaps during the reign of one of the first 26 Wizard Kings," he decided to rely on his rational side, as that was one of the things he was good at.

It was the dead of night, and he quickly opened the lock of the cage and went out.

"Let's see, should I open all these people's cages too? They could serve as a distraction," he mused while looking at around 30+ slaves.

"No, that would take too much time, which I don't have currently. Plus, I want my escape to be sneaky," he thought as he went to the door of the carriage.

He created a blade of mana with his fingers and cut through the gap in the door, splitting the lock into two.

Just as the door opened, he, crouching, quickly caught both pieces of the lock before they hit the ground and made a sound.

"Hehe, I wouldn't have been able to make my mana that sharp just a few days ago. Taking my time and training was the right thing to do after all," he internally chuckled while getting out of the carriage, which was static, indicating the guy was probably sleeping.

He quickly closed the broken door as much as he could.

"Okay, now that is out of the way, let's esc—" His thoughts stopped as he noticed the slaver watching him with wide eyes.

Both of them looked at each other.

Our main protagonist, despite not being a Joestar, subconsciously used their technique.

He threw the lock pieces at the guy's face while running in the opposite direction.

"That won't hit. I misjudged my strength," he thought while running in a zigzag pattern.

Suddenly, he dived sideways and saw a kick hit the air where he had been standing moments ago.

"This guy is fast. Is it mana enhancement, his natural physique, or both?" he thought, knowing that mana enhancement was likely a technique too, though he hadn't thought of a way to implement it practically.

"My only way to damage him is to release a mana blade at my maximum output, aiming for his neck or heart while compressing it."

"How did you escape?" the slaver asked.

Instead of running away, the boy lunged toward him.

"I am not the only one who escaped," the boy said suddenly, startling the slaver, who looked toward the carriage door, searching for signs of other prisoners escaping.

Generally, being an experienced mage, he wouldn't have looked away during a battle. However, due to the harmless appearance of the boy—who didn't even have a grimoire—and the unexpectedness of the situation, he made this rookie mistake.

His eyes widened as he sensed a decent amount of mana released from the boy's finger, compressed in the form of a blade, going straight for his neck.

Even caught off guard, his instincts as an experienced fighter kicked in. He rotated his body unnaturally, making the mana blade miss his neck by a hair's breadth.

He countered with an axe kick straight to the boy's gut, sending him flying like a cannonball into nearby trees, breaking them.

"Fuck, that hurt. Luckily, I had anticipated this and moved my mana to my abdomen just before the kick connected, releasing it to soften the impact—or I would have definitely died," the boy thought.

He had also used mana on his back to prevent injuries from the crash into the trees.

The slaver was surprised the boy survived. He had thought the kick would have left a hole in the boy's gut, given how instinctive and powerful the attack had been.

"I would have normally let you live despite trying to escape me, but it seems you are too dangerous for me to let live," the slaver said, summoning his grimoire and looking at the boy, who stared back at him with fear.

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